From the Director of Sixth Sense comes the highly anticipated live-action family adventure, The Last Airbender, based on the hugely successful Nickelodeon TV series. Air, Water, Earth and Fire. Four nations tied by destiny when the Fire Nation led by Prince Zuko (Dev Patel), launches a brutal war against the others. A century has passed with no hope in sight to change the path of this destruction. Caught between combat and courage, Aang (Noah Ringer) discovers he is the lone Avatar with the power to manipulate all four elements. Aang teams with Katara (Nicola Peltz), a Waterbender, and her brother Sokka (Jackson Rathbone), to restore balance to their war-torn world.

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If you are like me, you hate watching a kid's movie and then walk away scratching your head. This movie has that potential.

I liked the movie in spite of its short comings. I have not seen the Avatar cartoon, which may be why I over rate this as compared to die-hard cartoon fans. I have been a big fan of the early RPGs until my PS-1 died.

The world consists of a number of spirits which create harmony (moon spirit, dragon spirit etc.). Mankind in divided into four nations, each of which controls one of the 4 elements, water and Earth, Wind & Fire. Each element has its own spirit too. Each Nation has people who can control their specific element. The are called "benders." There is one person, and only one person in all the world who can control all 4 elements, that is the Avatar. The Avatar spirit always lives and is passed on, or reincarnated in every generation.

In this movie, the Avatar originated from the Air Bender nation. However, he didn't want to be an Avatar because of the self sacrifice so he ran away before he could learn all of his skills and powers. He ended up encased in a block of ice in the southern world, only to be "rescued" a 100 years later. During that 100 years, the Fire Nation and their machines have taken over the planet. They symbolically represent civilization destroying the planet and ruining the harmony of nature. The Air Bender must learn to master the other 3 elements in order to become a complete Avatar. This is his quest in the movie. Once he does that he can save the planet from the Fire Nation. He is capable of going into a deep trance and talks to the dragon spirit for advice.

Now to make this movie slightly more complicated there is friction within the Fire Nation.Read more ›

The Last Airbender had been pretty hyped up on all our visits to the cinema for the last year or so, so my daughter (aged 14) and I were quite looking forward to this one. Quite often for a film like this, it's more often a case of style over substance but in this case I found the reverse to be true - the story I found to be excellent but the execution was often lacking in parts.

It centred on Aang, the last Airbender (no sniggering at the back please) who was also found to be the latest incarnation of the Avatar, the special one who could also bend the other elements i.e. fire, water and earth (but not manage Chelsea FC). Made aware of his powers at a young age, understandably he panicked and fled, somehow ending up under the ice to be discovered a century later by Sokka and Katara. Katara was the last Waterbender of the Southern tribe, albeit not a very good one and like Aang her skills needed mush work! Aang's rebirth coincided with the Fire Nation's push for domination, starting with the destruction of Aang's Air Nation although rivalry in their army would often disrupt their plans. Aang, Sokka and Katara travel to the Northern territories to team up with the Waterbenders there and stage a stand-off against the evil Fire Nation.

As mentioned, I enjoyed the story which is nicely set up for part two but feel Shyamalan missed an opportunity here. With the exception of the excellent Dev Patel and Shaun Toub (the disgraced Fire Prince and his uncle) the acting was often wooden and the script could clunk like a drunk old man in clogs. Aang's preppy American accent grated to start with and his spiritual and training scenes borrowed from the original Karate Kid but lacked that film's soul and depth despite the authentic settings.Read more ›

Before reading the rest of this review, please see those three precisions / warnings:

1) I never saw even one episode of "Avatar" TV series before or after seeing this movie, so if you are a fan of "Avatar" and look for a comparison between those series and "The Last Airbender", further reading of this review will be for you unsatisfactory.

2) Due to very bad reviews this movie received, I went to see it with extremely low expectations and it may be one of the reasons why I was so pleasantly surprised - so if you are a fan of "Avatar" TV series AND in the same time you hate this movie, further reading of this review will be for you probably upsetting.

3) In many (not all) fantasy and SF movies I have a tendency to root for the bad guys, so if you are a fan of "Avatar" TV series and for that reason you hate the Fire Nation, further reading of this review can be for you life threatening....

MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD:

I found this movie much better than I expected and together with my 9 years old daughter we spend a good moment watching it. To compare "The Last Airbender" with other vaguely similar fantasy movies, I would say that it is better than "Eragon" and "Golden Compass", mostly on the same level as "Narnia II: Prince Caspian" and only slightly less good than "Narnia I: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe".Read more ›